How the hell the enemy archers block with their daggers???

[Handel]

Actually I noticed they often prefer daggers instead of the bows - even at the good battle AI. I won a tournament as in the final battle I was on foot with 2h sword against a horse archer. An impossible fight - but not according to the enemy "good" AI - the archer totally neglected his bow but instead started to charge me with his dagger from the horseback.

 

[its a kind of boat]

Chamber parrying.  The AI gets lucky with it once in a while.

 

[someboddy]

Yup, chamber-blocking. At the moment the enemy releases his attack, you need to chamber yours in the correct direction. Chambering is the process of moving your weapon to a ready-to-strike position. Pressing LMB is chambering and releasing LMB is striking.

Chamber-blocking is a bit difficult because you need to get both direction and timing right, but it pays off because if you manage to pull it it leaves you ready to strike and the enemy blocked-staggered, tough he can still block your attack if he's fast enough - I once had a chain of 4 or 5 chamber-blocks in the melees...

The direction is the same as with manual blocking - if the enemy strikes you from your left you need to chamber left etc. I believe stab and overhead chambering can both block stab and overhead attacks but I haven't confirmed it yet.

Anyways, weapons that cannot be used to block are great for chamber-blocking because they are usually very fast. You can also chamber-block with your fists - I once chamber-blocked a couched lance with my bare hands in a tourney, just for fun...

 

[LittleJP]

Yup, chamber-blocking. At the moment the enemy releases his attack, you need to chamber yours in the correct direction. Chambering is the process of moving your weapon to a ready-to-strike position. Pressing LMB is chambering and releasing LMB is striking.

Chamber-blocking is a bit difficult because you need to get both direction and timing right, but it pays off because if you manage to pull it it leaves you ready to strike and the enemy blocked-staggered, tough he can still block your attack if he's fast enough - I once had a chain of 4 or 5 chamber-blocks in the melees...

The direction is the same as with manual blocking - if the enemy strikes you from your left you need to chamber left etc. I believe stab and overhead chambering can both block stab and overhead attacks but I haven't confirmed it yet.

Anyways, weapons that cannot be used to block are great for chamber-blocking because they are usually very fast. You can also chamber-block with your fists - I once chamber-blocked a couched lance with my bare hands in a tourney, just for fun...

You ninja you

 

[mrdang]

daggers, picks, and small axes are neat weapons to carry around when swings collide into everything in warband 

 

[Rubberduck]

I have small doubt about AI´s chamber blocking. AI has held the weapon in clear blocking position long before I stroke. This has happened with cleavers, daggers, sickles.

I did witness two-hander chamber block in sparring, which ko´d me cold. But it was cool.

 

[Urlik]

as a newcomer to the M&B community I am unfamiliar with the term "chamber blocking"
could someone post a brief description?
a search turns up 1000's of posts where people use it and that's a lot to wade through

TIA

 

[nood]

as a newcomer to the M&B community I am unfamiliar with the term "chamber blocking"
could someone post a brief description?
a search turns up 1000's of posts where people use it and that's a lot to wade through

Read the third post?

 

[Handel]

I understand this is introduced for balance issues with MP but in a real battle how the hell rising my hand to deal a blow with a dagger can block a sword swing?

 

[Urlik]

DOH

the blade of the dagger is in the way, so when the weapon is swung it hits the dagger and bounces off with an effect similar to blocking but without the "daggers can't be used to block" penalty

 

[earthling]

I can take heart from the notion "it's only impossible until someone does it"... for me, chamber blocking is really tough, but I know it's possible having seen vids.  I can do it maybe 10% of the time against 1 AI (good)... ugh... I suck at Royal Blocks in Devil May Cry as well.. the window is so small. 

 

[Wolfrug]

Actually, the AI doesn't 'chamber block' - it can't. All it does is spam attacks which quite often chamberblock by pure accident. It's incredibly aggravating, actually, but I suppose it does force the player to be more on his toes when fighting the AI.

 

[Ricox]

They are supermen that prefer to charge with a weak melee weapon instead of circling around enemy and taking him down using a ranged weapon (like it's in original M&B, in Warband somewhy the AI prefers to charge all the time).

 

[OldGreyBeard]

They are supermen ...

That's the TRUTH!! I'm at a loss as to how a 2nd tier archer can block my level 31 masterwork war cleaver swing with a pen knife! Seriously, the weight of metal alone would make it next to impossible, but there he is, stopping a poised swing by a master warrior cold, and staggering him to boot!  Dang knife doesn't even have a decent cross-hilt to trap the blade! I should at least shear the dang peasant's fingers off! But, no ... I'm stunned and he and all his buddies get a free chop/stab/whack! 

Well, I guess it's needed for play balance. Still annoying.

 

[Mikan]

Well the AI prefers overheads and stabs so as long as you do right slashes or left slashes then you'll pretty much have them stumped. It's much easier to chamber block a stab and an overhead.

If you want to practice chamber blocking, you need to manual block as normal and then pretend to chamber block with your weapon. If you reduce the time that you're manual blocking until you're just chambering then you'll have chamber blocking in the bag.

Take note that online it is near impossible to carry out unless you have a really low ping (or are good at guessing).


Historically, daggers were used in the offhand to parry whilst the main hand struck with a big sword. Techniques existed to parry large weapons with a dagger. You aren't trying to absorb the blow, you're trying to redirect it. That means angling the dagger to change the momentum of the enemy blade away to one side, whilst you dodge to the other. With a dagger in the right hand, an overhead would be blocked by chambering to the left and striking the blade down to the ground on your right, whilst you moved your body to the left. The opponent's blade never gets caught in the guard and you never absorb the energy, you simply redirect it. You can even do this with your hands. M&B's implementation of this is a little weird but you just need to overlook that.